This invention relates in general to certain new and useful improvements in cable tools and, more particularly, to a device which is capable of cutting and enabling stripping of the sheath covering on a cable.
At present, there are a large number of cable tools which are capable of both cutting and stripping an outer sheath of a cable. These cable tools are primarily designed for use in removing the sheathing from electrical cables, although they are used in a variety of other applications. In the case of multi-cord electrical cables, that is cables which are comprised of a pair of electrical conductors and each being covered by sheaths, it is necessary to initially cut the cable into the two cord sections. Thereafter, a portion of the sheathing which surrounds two of the electrical cords is then removed so that the exposed ends of electrical cable may be connected to or may be spliced to any other electrical form of element.
For this purpose, there have been a number of available cable tools which essentially operate on the basis of a scissors-type mechanism. In these cases, the tool includes an aperture forming a recess between two opposed end engageable scissors-type elements which are capable of cutting an electrical cable or similar cable, in a direction transverse to its normal length when the cable is located in the recess of the scissors-type element. One of the primary problems with this form of sheath cutting device is that there was no provision for automatically compensating the depth of the cutting element, that is the cutting portions on each of the scissors blades, with respect to the size of the sheath, such that the cable in the sheath would not be cut by inadvertance. Consequently, while excessive care was exercised in cutting the sheath on the cable, the user of the device would often tend to cut the cable itself. Moreover, these forms of cutting devices did not include any means for cutting the cables, as for example multi-cord electrical cables, into longitudinal cable sections.
There have been other attempts to provide a commercial cable tool which is capable of both cutting and removing the sheath from a portion of a cable. Here, again, each of these devices are either capable of only cutting the cable into a multiplicity of longitudinal sections, or, otherwise, only removing a portion of the sheath from the cable. In addition to the above, there has been no device which is capable of accomplishing both functions on a highly precise basis such that the user of the device is capable of adjusting the size of the cutting element with respect to the size of the sheath so that very little skill is required in removing a sheath from a cable.
It is therefore the primary object of the present invention to provide a cable tool which includes both slicing and cutting assemblies for both cutting the sheath and stripping the sheath from a cable.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a cable tool of the type stated which includes a means of adjusting a cutting blade relative to the thickness of the sheath from the cable without cutting or otherwise damaging the cable.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a cable tool of the type stated which can be manufactured at a relatively low unit cost and which is highly reliable in its operation.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a cable tool of the type stated which is capable of being adjusted to accommodate and thereby cut and strip a wide variety of cable sizes.
It is another salient object of the present invention to provide a method of both cutting and stripping the sheath surrounding a cable with a single device.
With the above and other objects in view, my invention resides in the novel features of form, arrangements, and combinations presently described and pointed out in the claims.